


Seventh Grade

by coffeewithcream



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Ryan Bergara - Fandom, Shane Madej - Fandom, shyan - Fandom
Genre: Awkward Crush, Developing Relationship, Fluff, Friendship/Love, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 09:45:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16930935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeewithcream/pseuds/coffeewithcream
Summary: A particularly active investigation in an abandoned sanatorium leads Ryan to believing that hosting Buzzfeed Unsolved isn't for him anymore. He tries to wrap up the investigation early, but Shane convinces him to stay. In return, Shane comforts him. They both learn something new about each other, and the boundaries of their relationship start to blur.





	Seventh Grade

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I'm Noel and I've been writing for a while, but it's been a long time since I've posted anything. This is the first thing I've written in a long time, and I know I'm a but rusty, but I'm still proud! I love Buzzfeed Unsolved and I love Ryan and Shane's dynamic together, but this was written just for fun. I hope you guys enjoy!

Metal hinges on doors creaked. Incessant tapping came from above. Shuffling feet scuttled outside the room. Everything in the air seemed to be alive, electric almost. The only other noises accompanying the disembodied sounds were Ryan’s ragged breathing. His wide eyed stare never left the ceiling above him, his sleeping bag never rustled due to him being too frightened to move, and he could feel his blood pulsing throughout his body. The sanatorium that him and Shane were investigating seemed tame enough when they were shooting B-roll in the daytime, just another old abandoned building that would give anyone the creeps. When the investigation started however, the building itself seemed to awaken. Ryan was bombarded by whispers, thuds, cold spots, and electronic malfunction throughout the night. Shane, of course, had a logical reasoning for just about everything that happened. Wind, old plumbing, voices from the crew carrying through the halls, and plain-old technology being unreliable. Ryan refused to believe anything he was spouting despite his desire for Shane to be correct just this one time. Against Ryan’s wishes, the crew stuck to the initial plan of leaving Ryan and Shane to stay the night alone in the building. He pleaded with staff, but they relented. The Unsolved series had a tight budget as is, regarding the cost of equipment, travel, and rights to film on properties. They couldn’t afford to waste thousands of dollars on hotel rooms for the crew just because Ryan got spooked. In his head, it made sense. But his gut told him that they either needed to run as far away from the premises as humanly possible, or at least stay together to keep strength in numbers. But here Ryan was, staring horrified at the sanatorium ceiling too afraid to close his eyes in fear of what might be there when he opens them. 

A monstrous bang sounded through the empty room from above, and Ryan sprung out of his sleeping bag. Tripping over his feet and hands shaking, he fumbled new batteries in the flashlight and fled the room. His bare feet bounded against the chilled floors of the building as Ryan frantically shone the flashlight’s beams overheard all the door frames to check their numbers. Although Ryan was terrified, he knew he couldn’t leave Shane here with whatever caused that hideous sound.

He finally came across the correct room, where legend has it that a nurse was killed by a patient who was exacting revenge on her mistreatment of another patient who happened to be his close friend. As scared as he was to enter that room, he knew it couldn’t be worse than what he was feeling now. Ryan burst through the door and immediately starting taking down equipment.

“Shane! Shane, wake up. We’re leaving,” Ryan stated matter of factory, trying to hide the tremble in his voice. 

“Huh?” Shane had barely risen his head from his pillow at the sound of Ryan’s frenzy. How could he sleep so soundly through all of this activity? 

“I hate it here. I hate how it looks, I hate the history, I hate the energy, I hate everything about it! We need to leave. Now.” His voice was becoming more panicked.  
Shane sat up in his sleeping bag, rubbing his eyes and fumbling for his glasses. 

“Now, Ryan, we’ve been through this already-“

“I don’t care about us blowing all of the money! Buzzfeed is a multi-million dollar company, if they go bankrupt from us leaving one investigation then they have all the right to sue me! I’m not risking my life for some stupid company.” Ryan’s hands were shaking so violently that he dropped some equipment.

“The cameras are still rolling, buckaroo.”

“Do you think I give a fuck? We can edit it out, if we even post this at all.” Tears started to well up in Ryan’s eyes as he put down the case for the tripod set up in the corner of the room. “I can’t do it. I thought I could do this, but I can’t. I’m so scared all the time and I’m no help to any of these investigations. All I do is scream and run. I can’t do this anymore, I just can’t.” 

Shane reached over to the portable lamp near his sleeping bag once he had plopped his glasses down on the bridge of his nose.  
“You can do it, you just need to-“

Shane’s nonchalant attitude was grating in his nerves. Ryan turned to face him. “Just need to what? Believe in myself? That’s a sick fucking joke. How can I do that when no one else believes in me. People are turning to your side because instead of getting hard-hitting evidence I just scurry around and whimper. Our fans don’t take me seriously. Even our team doesn’t take me seriously! They think it’s funny when I make a fool of myself for everyone on the internet to see. They don’t believe me when I say it’s not safe to be here, and now you don’t either!”

“I do believe in you.” Shane lowered his voice and stated firmly. There wasn’t an ounce of sarcasm or humor to his voice. Just honestly. The change of character caught Ryan off guard and he just stood there staring at Shane waiting for a punchline to come in. Instead, Shane dropped his eyes to his sleeping bag.

“Look,” he, brought his eyes back to Ryan’s, but not really, “we only have a few more hours left in this investigation. I think that you and I can and will tough it out together. The camera is still rolling in the room you were in, right?” 

Ryan nodded gingerly.

“Then we’ll keep it on in case any other activity comes around. In the morning, we can delete whatever footage you have of you being scared of you want. Go get your sleeping bag and bring it in here. You can stay with me and I’ll stay up with you as long as you do.” 

Ryan swallowed the lump in his throat, relived but embarrassed nonetheless.  
His gaze shifted to the floor and his arms crossed. He waited a moment before responding. “I’m not going back in there.” 

“Then share mine. I promise not to make it too weird.” 

Still staring at the floor, a small grin danced on Ryan’s lips as he nodded. He walked over to Shane and lowered down to crawl into the soon to be crowded sleeping bag. He heard Shane rustle the bag by scooting over to give Ryan some adequate room. Once Ryan was in, they were smashed together like sardines, but at least Ryan’s toes were warming up. 

“So I see you’re a no-socks when you sleep kind of guy. Even when we’re in a building with no heating system.” 

Ryan softly chucked. “Old habits die hard.”

Shane smiled a bit, pleased with himself for lightening Ryan’s mood and turned over, his back facing Ryan. There goes staying up with me, he thought reminding himself that while Shane might care about many things, getting in proper sleep time was one of the top priorities. Still, Ryan felt calmer. Silence filled the room for about half an hour, when a distance creak tumbled down the hallway and made Ryan catch his breath. 

“It’s an old building, the metal work is probably breaking down.” 

Ryan hastily turned towards Shane’s turned back. He was awake, after all. 

“Y-Yeah, you’re probably right.” 

Shane stretched his arm to the portable lamp, fingers closing around the switch. 

“Can we-Can we leave that on for now?” Ryan hated this. He hated admitting to his childish fears. He waited for Shane to mock him and ask if he needed his teddy bear too, but he never did. He just silently lowered his arm back to his body. Ryan felt Shane turn over to face him, arms slightly brushing against one another. 

“I think it’s evident that neither of us are going to get sleep tonight. The least we can do is make conversation.” 

“Making conversation surrounded by ghosts who want to murder us?” Ryan scoffed, “Sounds normal.”

“Allegedly.”

“Allegedly what? Want to murder us or surrounded by ghosts?” Ryan could feel his shoulders relax.

Shane shrugged, “Take your pick.” 

Ryan stared up at Shane, reading every emotion that was evident on his face that was partially illuminated by the lamp. He seemed so casual, so calm. There wasn’t a glint of fear or uncertainty in his eyes, no tension in his body, no tightness in his jaw. If you blocked out his surroundings, you would think he was just at home, waking up from dozing on his couch in the middle of a movie, not an abandoned sanatorium. 

“How do you do that?”

Shane furrowed his brow. “Do what?” 

“I don’t know. Not be scared of things? Of anything?”

“I’m scared of lots of things. I’m scared of spiders, abandonment, what the government is doing behind our backs. I’m scared of real things.” 

Ryan bit back the instinct of the quip of Shane not knowing if ghosts were real or not. He just rolled his eyes and shook his head.  
“Have you always been like this? So against the idea of the supernatural? I mean have you ever for once in your life believed in ghosts?” 

Shane’s eyes raised to the ceiling, as if he was picking his own brain. He smacked his lips and looked back down at Ryan.  
“I guess I did at one point. When I was like, in the seventh grade.” 

In despite of himself, Ryan laughed at Shane’s obvious jab at him. Surprisingly, Shane’s sarcasm comforted him in the midst of his chaotic and frightened state. Ryan’s reaction caused Shane to copy him, his eyes crinkling and soft chuckles emitting from him at his own joke. Some tension in Ryan’s body released. Laughing made him feel brave all of a sudden. When they both finally composed themselves. Ryan wiped his eyes and said through a chuckle, “I think I started believing in them in the seventh grade.” 

“I’m honestly surprised you weren’t spouting spooky nonsense at birth,” he paused for a moment, “what else did little Ryan experience in the seventh grade?” 

For a fleeting moment, Ryan caught Shane’s dark eyes in the pale fluorescent light. He quickly shook his head. “Um, I don’t know. I had my first kiss. A girl named Andrea Plath.”

“Any relation to Sylvia?” 

Ryan smiled, “No, you idiot,” 

Shane’s tone softened, “I had one of my first kisses, too. My best friend James.”

Ryan knew of Shane’s bisexuality, but he was shocked because Shane rarely ever mentioned it, in fact, he didn’t like talking about it. His attitude towards that issue mirrored to his attitude towards ghosts and demons; weirdly casual. It was Ryan’s turn to brighten the atmosphere. 

“In seventh grade, I scored the winning shot in my junior varsity basketball championship.” 

“Oh yeah? Well, I sang the angelic solo at the state choir competition that won us third place.” 

Instead of laughing at the choir’s mediocrity, Ryan raised his eyebrows. “You can sing?”

Shane quickly shook his head, “No, I sound like a toke deaf canary.”

“I don’t know, you said it. Your solo won your middle school third place.” 

Were the tips of Shane’s ears red? He quietly admitted, “We could’ve won first if the altos got their shit together.” 

A grin danced on Ryan’s lips. He felt his bare feet brush against Shane’s flannel pajama bottoms. “So you can sing.”

“It’s not like I’m as good as I was as a prepubescent teenager,” 

“Sing right now.”

“What? No. I think the ghosts have made you go crazy.” 

“So, you admit that there are ghosts here?”

At this, Shane poked Ryan in the chest. “I absolutely did not say that,” he continued poking Ryan in the chest on each syllable. When he was done, Ryan’s giggles from being ticklish caused Shane to giggle himself and relax his hand on Ryan’s pecs.

“Sing or I’m editing that together to sound like a confession,” he said between giggles. 

“So this is what it’s come to. I open my sleeping bag to you and in return I get blackmailed?” Shane’s voice raised in his signature condescending joking tone. 

“Do it and I promise you, I’ll go the fuck to sleep.” 

Shane blew air out of his nose and pursed his lips. He was and always had been a great friend to Ryan, but his exhaustion could get the best of him. Ryan was looking up at him with expectant eyes, and he searched Shane’s facial features for any indication of intent. Shane was so hard to read, but something about the look in his eyes made Ryan think that the steel guard that Shane has built was showing some vulnerability. 

“Baby you’re all that I want, when you’re lying here in my arms...”

Ryan’s amused smile faded into a one of surprises disbelief. Shane’s voice was so low, yet so pronounced. His tone was raspy, part of it sounded natural but some of the rasp attributed to Shane’s sleepy voice. The one thing that Ryan could compare it to was rich, dark molasses in hot tea. Shane’s eyes never moved from Ryan’s while finishing out the melody of the tune. In the hallway, there was a mysterious bang. 

“We’re in heaven...”

Both of them laid still. They held their breath, both seemingly nervous to what the other would say. The proximity of the sleeping bag was made increasingly aware, as the tips of their noses were barely touching against one another. Their eyes didn’t leave each other’s but their lids lowered slightly. Ryan took a shaky breath in. 

“Did you just serenade me with a Bryan Adams song?” 

Shane’s expression didn’t change. “Maybe,”

Ryan’s heartbeat pick up its pace. He hoped that Shane couldn’t feel it. “Was that a song that your seventh grade choir performed?” 

“No,” Shane almost whispered.

Ryan acknowledged the possible subtext of Shane’s song choice and they way he was looking at him. He didn’t want to admit it to himself, but he didn’t hate the idea as much as he wanted to. Something about the way Shane looked at the moment made Ryan’s stomach flip. His messy, sleep tousled hair, his glazed over eyes behind the frame of his dorky glasses, his stubble covered jaw, and his slightly opened pink lips that looked so inviting.

Ryan swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. “Thank you, um. Your voice is very nice. I guess I’ll try to go to sleep now.” 

He searched Shane’s eyes for confirmation of his statement, or even a rejection of Ryan’s earlier promise. Part of him wanted Shane to accept thing as they are, but a bigger part of him wanted something else. He wasn’t sure what, but he wanted to find out. He watched as Shane stared into his soul and took a nervous breath. 

“What shenanigans did eighth grade Ryan Bergara find himself in?”


End file.
